In various application, including military, space, commercial and recreational applications, there is a need to operate in harsh and hostile environments where ambient temperature may vary from for example -54.degree. C. to +71.degree. C., ambient pressures may vary from near vacuum condition in for example space applications to 30 psia (i.e. two atmospheres) for underwater applications, the vehicle or other container for the election components may experience significant shock and vibration, the environment may contain contaminants such as salt and various environmental pollutants and the environment may also contain various types of electromagnetic radiation. Such applications include military aircraft, including fixed wing and helicopters, commercial aircraft, space vehicles, military and commercial ships, various military and commercial land vehicles, temporary shelters, docks, offshore platforms, various unmanned remote monitoring stations and the like. Since COTS electronics is normally designed for operation in an office environment between +10.degree. C. and +40.degree.C., it has heretofore been possible to operate electronics in such environments only if the electronics is specially designed for such applications or is either individually packaged or packaged in small functional units designed for such applications. Since the cost of components specially designed for such application is high, few components are available which can operate in such environments and such components are typically far behind the current state of the art. Environmentally packaging components, or small groups of components, can also be expensive and results in a final product which is generally bulky, heavy and expensive. Such packaging may also have significant power requirements. Costs are further increased by the fact that it is frequently necessary to custom design the packaging or box for each unit being packaged.
A need therefore exists for a packaging technique which permits COTS electronics, including the most up-to-date, high performance COTS electronics, to be used in the various hostile environments indicated above without requiring customization of the electronic component itself or custom packaging for the components or units in which it is used, and which thus permits such components to be used in hostile environments at lower cost, with less added size and weight and with greater flexibility than is possible with existing environmental packaging techniques. Further reductions in cost, size, and weight may also be achieved by taking advantage of relaxed environmental specifications for some applications. For example, where the only environment for the application is a low temperature environment, operation in the range of -54.degree. C. to +40.degree. C. may be adequate, rather than requiring operation of up to +71.degree. C.